Slave Trade
The main trade of the pirates was slavery. Roman merchants bought the most slaves. Roman land owners held large plantations worked by slaves. Sicily was notorious for its slave plantations owned by Romans.
Delos became the center of the Mediterranean slave market; other markets included those of Rhodes and Alexandria. At its heyday, a 100,000 slaves passed through its markets in a single day. With the plantations came a harsher system of slavery and greater demand. Western Asia was the main supply, and was reduced by piracy and Roman tax farmers.
Read more about this topic: Cilician Pirates
Famous quotes containing the words slave and/or trade:
“A slave who deals wisely will rule over a child who acts shamefully, and will share the inheritance as one of the family.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 17:2.
“Though I have locked my gate on them
I pity all the young,
I know what devil’s trade they learn
From those they live among,
Their drink, their pitch and toss by day,
Their robbery by night....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)